FUTURE MOBILITY

WORLD SOLAR CHALLENGE | A Documentary on the Future of Mobility

3,000 kilometres across Australia. Powered by the sun. Built by students. And driven by one question: What could the future of mobility look like?

Our documentary “SONNENWAGEN – FUTURE MOBILITY” follows the team from RWTH Aachen University and FH Aachen as they take their solar car Covestro Adelie to the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge – one of the world’s most demanding competitions for solar-powered vehicles.

The race leads from Darwin to Adelaide, straight through the Australian Outback. But the film is about much more than getting a solar car across the finish line.

We accompanied the team through preparation, testing, setbacks, technical problems, strategic decisions and finally more than 3,000 kilometres of racing. What emerges is a story about innovation, teamwork, resilience and the people behind new technology.

Because ultimately, the most interesting part of a solar car is not the car itself.

It is the people who believe they can build something better.

More than a race

The World Solar Challenge becomes a real-world laboratory for questions that reach far beyond motorsport:

How efficient can mobility become?
What role can solar energy play in future transport?
How do young engineers turn ambitious ideas into functioning technology?
And what can established industry learn from a generation that approaches mobility from a completely different perspective?

To place the team’s journey in a broader context, the documentary combines the story from Australia with perspectives from science, industry and politics.

Among the contributors are:

Ranga Yogeshwar – science journalist
Prof. Dr. Maren Urner – neuroscientist and author
Dr. Karl-Thomas Neumann – former CEO of Opel and Continental
Sucheta Govil – Chief Commercial Officer, Covestro
Klaus Löckel – CEO DACH, Siemens
Oliver Krischer – Minister for Environment, Nature and Transport of North Rhine-Westphalia
Prof. Dr. Ulrich Rüdiger – Rector, RWTH Aachen
Teddy Woll – former Head of Aerodynamics, Mercedes-Benz
Chris Selwood – Managing Director, World Solar Challenge

Their perspectives connect the very concrete challenge of building and racing a solar vehicle with the much larger transformation of mobility, energy and industry.

Award-winning documentary

The film received 1st Place in the Documentary category at the New York Tri-State International Film Festival – an award we are particularly proud of, because this project was much more than a commissioned film for us.

It became a documentary about a generation that does not simply discuss transformation.

They build it, test it – and drive it across Australia.

Credits

Production: Department Studios Filmproduktion Frankfurt
Concept, Script & Direction: Thomas Pohl
Cinematography: Adrian Vidak · Henry Pohl · Moritz Mitzel · Thomas Pohl
Music: Thomas Pohl

Our Services

Documentary development · concept & script · international film production · direction · cinematography · interviews · drone footage · production in Australia · editing · post-production · color grading · original music · sound design

SONNENWAGEN – FUTURE MOBILITY: A documentary about solar mobility. And even more about the people making it possible.